Every now and then there comes a time to honor a majestic play made in baseball. Whether it’s high school or the majors, an over the wall catch or a homer into the Bay Area can capture the nation. On Wednesday night, Houston Astros slugger Evan Gattis bestowed upon us a play of such greatness, as he mashed a home run with just one hand in a 14-3 loss to the Texas Rangers.
While most were getting amped up about the Rangers (one of the more exciting teams in baseball right now) and Prince Fielder’s big night, there was clearly reason for pause here. The lone bright spot in a total drubbing, Gattis seemed to lose his grip on the bat with his other hand, yet still popper a homer to help his team out.
Gattis would have needed like 10 more of those for it to matter in the crushing loss, but it was still beyond impressive and definitely entertaining. While the one-armed smash is a clear rarity and should be treated with special care, the power isn’t surprising to see from Gattis, who owns 24 jacks on the year.
What Evan Gattis did last night with one hand, a lot of us couldn’t do with seven. Hats off to Gattis, even though the feat came in a losing effort.
Amazing one-handed homers aside, the Astros really came up lame in this game and their offensive ineptitude couldn’t have come at a worse time. The loss to the hated Rangers, who now have a 1.5 game lead above the Astros at the top of the AL West, severely hurt their chances of winning the division and making the playoffs. This is especially true considering they’re behind in the division race and probably need to take over the Rangers to get into the playoffs. Houston’s only other route would be finishing as one of the top two wild card teams in the American League. The New York Yankees would be the other one at the moment, while the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels could also factor into the equation.
Needless to say, Houston could use a lot more where that Gattis mash came from when they try to turn things back around against Texas on Thursday night.
